With injuries forcing the Lakers into lineups without any guards you can name — unless you’re a big D-League fan — the Spurs looked every bit the contender, racing out to an early double-digit lead, never letting up and cruising to a 120-89 win Friday night over the Lakers in Los Angeles. They were professional, cold and efficient all night long. They were the Spurs.

San Antonio is now up 3-0 in the series and will likely close it out Sunday in Los Angeles with a similar performance. Will the Lakers put up much of a fight?

“It’s hard to determine,” Pau Gasol said in a postgame moment of honesty. “We’ll see Sunday how much fight we have in us in order to give ourselves a chance and not have a 30 point loss at home.”

It was 31 points, which is the worst home loss in Lakers playoff history. The Lakers fans who stuck around for the end of the game chanted “we want Phil” but when you look at who is left on the Lakers’ roster Phil Jackson likely would pass.

“It’s difficult because we have lineups out there that we’re not accustomed to and it’s hard to get on the same page right away,” Gasol said. “So as much as everybody is trying, tonight there was too many breakdowns.”

Those breakdowns largely came on the defensive end, which has been the Lakers weak link all season anyway. The Spurs shot 61.2 percent for the game, and they got 56 points in the paint on 28-of-39 shooting. The Spurs averaged 123 points per 100 possessions (their season average was 105.9).

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker ate the Lakers defense up. Duncan had 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting, knocking down midrange face-ups, driving around guys and even finishing an alley-oop one handed.

Parker started to look like his old self, the one that played at an MVP level for a stretch of the season. He had 20 points on 9-of-14 shots and carved up the Lakers.

This was a slow and steady march by San Antonio that started early — the Lakers led 6-3 and then the Spurs went on a 14-2 run. It was 30-18 San Antonio after one quarter, 12 minutes in which the Spurs shot 61.1 percent. Meanwhile the Lakers shot 34.8 percent, with Morris and Goudelock shooting 1-of-6. As it has been all season, Pau Gasol and Howard shot a combined 5-9, rest of Lakers 3-14.

Howard finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds, but after the game he was clearly frustrated by the Spurs strategy of fouling him hard nearly every time he went up for a shot. He took 15 free throws on the night, making 7. Morris added 24 points, Goudelock 20 and Gasol 11.

The only bad news for the Spurs was Tiago Splitter going down in the fourth quarter with a sprained ankle. He left the building on crutches but Popovich said that the X-rays were negative. Popovich said don’t expect him to play on Sunday. Expect to see a lot DeJuan Blair and Matt Bonner Sunday in Game 4.

If the Spurs close out the series Sunday — and it’s hard to imagine any other outcome — Splitter could have a week to get right. That’s how long the first round of the NBA playoffs go. Duncan was okay with that.

“We’re an older team and we could use all the rest we can get,” Duncan said.